- Anthropocene
- Biosphere stewardship
- Co-production
- Human cooperation
- Keystone actors
Henrik Österblom works with scientists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, private sector change-makers, artists, museums, and birds.
Österblom is a sustainability scientist who has studied transnational corporations, international relations, ocean ecosystems and governance, human cooperation, and equity. Since 2022, he has been the director at the Anthropocene Laboratory at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
He is engaged in two projects at Stockholm Resilience Centre: 'The SeaBOS project', funded by the Walton Family Foundation, and 'Agricultural Debtscapes: How does debt-driven agricultural development affect adaptive capacities?', funded by Formas.
He has a background in behavioural ecology from Uppsala University and a PhD in marine ecology from Stockholm University. He worked for the Swedish government as policy advisor, been a visiting scientist at University of British Colombia, University of Tasmania and Tokyo University and a visiting professor to Tokyo University. He is adjunct professor to the University of Tasmania.
Other current roles include:
- Editor Testing I, II (Ambio) 2025–
- Chairman, SeaBOS Fundraising Foundation 2019–
- Board Member, Race for the Baltic Fundraising Foundation 2018–
Awards and achievements
- Sweden Impact Award (2017) High-level dialogue with private sector “keystone actors” in the seafood industry. AESIS.
- The Askö Young Scientist Award, Stockholm University (2011)
Key publications
Hattle, A., Flores, C., Ningrum, D., Blasiak, R., Bengtsson, F., Österblom, H. (2025) An active academia for peace and sustainability. Peace and Sustainability 100004
Österblom, H., Gazitúa, F., Leible, A. (2023) To split a stone. Soc. 28 (3): 11
Österblom, H. (2023) The Sounds of Science – Orchestrating stewardship in the Seafood industry. Academic Press.
Österblom, H., Folke, C., Rocha, J., Bebbington, J., Blasiak, R., Jouffray, J.-B., Selig, E. R., Wabnitz, C.C.C., Bengtsson, F., Crona, B., Gupta, R., Henriksson, P. J. G., Johansson, K.A., Merrie, A., Nakayama, S., Ortuño Crespo, G., Rockström, J., Schultz, L., Sobkowiak, M., Søgaard Jørgensen, P., Spijkers, J., Troell, M., Villarubia-Gómez, P., Lubchenco, J. (2022) Scientific mobilization of keystone actors for biosphere stewardship. Scientific Reports 12: 3802
Paasche, Ø., Österblom, H. (2019) Unsustainable Science. One Earth 1(1): 39-42
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